The Hero Reborn
Chapter 1: The Fallen
Stoick watched in horror as the large dragon queen plummeted to the ground. Hiccup and his dragon still flying inches away from her now flaming jaws. He watched frozen to the spot as hiccup shot back toward the queens almost falling into her mouth.
However at the last minute he maneuvered around her and began to fly up, scaling the large mountain of a dragon.
When the beast finally collided with the ground she erupted. The sound that emitted from the explosion was almost deafening, to the point where stoick had to cover his ears and duck his had in an attempt to relieve the tremendous pressure on his eardrums.
Fire erupted into the sky in the shape of a large mushroom, the flames heat melting some of the swords and axes that lay abandoned on the rocky field in the Vikings mad dash to the boats. Stoick could feel his arms begin to develop sun burns as he used them to shield his face.
He struggled to breath in the thick cloud of smoke that slithered its way into his lunges and threatened to choke him.
The feeling was so intense stoick was sure he was going to die. However after a few short minutes the flames died down and the smoke, although still thick in the air, began to thin out enough for him to breath.
Stoick let his arms fall down to his sides as he took in the scene that lay before him. Ash was raining down from the sky like snow and a thin layered already coated the ground. The sky was blocked by smoke as it rose to blot out the sun. Large chunks of charred bones and dragon meat lay across the field, some still burning. Looking behind him he saw his people beginning to right themselves as they realized that the explosion had ceased.
Then stoick felt his blood run cold as he thought of where hiccup was when the large dragon met the ground. Turning he began running full pelt in the direction he thought the dragon had landed. Thousands of gruesome thought ran through his head as he dashed through the ash and smoke. Shaking them out of his head he trying to focus himself on finding his son amidst to rumble, but one thought kept running through his mind, Please don't let him be dead, please let him be alive.
When he reached the lower part of the rocky gray beach he spotted a figure lying atop the ash a little ways ahead. Feeling hope raise in his chest he sprinted towards it. As he drew closer to the dark figure he could make out the shape of the night fury his son had been riding. Stoick felt his hopes soar and begin to restore function to his frozen heart as he approached the dragons still form.
But as he drew near he realized that hiccup was not on the dragon back, he was nowhere in sight.
Stoick felt his knees give out from underneath him as his hopes came crashing down. The dragon sensed the large man's presence and lifted his somber head, fixing it's large yellows eyes on the chief.
"is he…oh Odin please no…is he…. " Stoic struggled to say the word because he knew as soon as it left his lips it would be like putting the final nail in the coffin, that reality would come crashing in with sharp force.
The chief swallowed hard past the lump that had formed in his throat. The dragon seemed to understand his struggle. The unspoken question lay like thick smoke in the air. Slowly the night fury unfurled his long black wings and lying curled up in the dragon's arms was the pale and battered figure of his rider….and red.
There was blood everywhere. It pooled around the boy like a large pond. It was thick and smelled of iron. It poured slowly out of his left leg, which was twisted at an impossible angle.
"NO, NO, NO" stoick yelled in anguish as he reached for the lifeless for of his only son, removing him from the dragons gentle grasp, not caring when blood covered his arms and hands.
When stoick lifted the boy the bottom half of his leg almost came clean off as it dangled by small strands of skin and muscle tissue.
Stoick wrenched his helmet of and shoved his large head into his son's bird cage of a chest. Listening, hoping, searching for the small beating sound that would indicate life.
But no matter how hard or long he pushed his head against the boy's chest he was meet with nothing but silence. The once bright and determined boy was now a hollow shell. Stoic felt his heart stop and his breath seize in his throat. Vikings don't cry. It was a rule, especially if your stoic the vast. There was nothing less masculine then showing emotion, however in this case stoic was sure the gods would forgive him.
He felt the large hot drops leak from his tightly shut eyes as he rocked his boy to his chest.
Hiccup was all he had had left but in his idiotic stubbornness he'd said such cruel things to him, and he'd never get the chance to apologize, to make up for it, for everything.
Stoick only now realized how foolish he'd been now that his precious boy lay lifeless and bleeding in his arms. It felt like an eternity that he sat there holding the child when he heard a commotion behind him. Turning his large head he looked to see the rest of the villagers, Astrid in particular, crying. Crying for the boy they'd barely known, let alone liked.
Anger weld up in the chiefs chest. 'how dare they' he thought furiously ' how dare they, they who never knew him, they who treated him with such contempt'.
However this thought made the once proud chief look away from his fellow villagers in shame, after all hadn't he done the same? To his own son no less, his own son who'd had no one else to turn to.
Had it really been so bad that the only one who would ever understand the boy and love him was his enemy? Not even his own people had given him that. His greatest enemy had given his son what he had not, and for that stoic felt ashamed, to the point is felt like his soul might tear in half.
Uneven footsteps echo in the silence beside stoick and a large hand fell on the chiefs broad shoulders in a comforting gesture. Lifting his head he saw tears falling for his best friends eyes, Gobber had practically raised the boy after all and thought of hiccup as his own son in away.
"Stoick I'm….I'm so sorry" Gobber managed to choke out. "He died a hero…..and a better man then all of us, hiccup was a true Viking"
Gobber looked over the small boy tucked in his friend's arms. Hiccup looked so peaceful, almost as if asleep, but those vivid green eyes would never open again, that quirky mouth would never utter another sarcastic remark. And he would never know just how much he was loved.
Another pair of shoes could be heard approaching the two Vikings. And a man cleared his throat in an almost awkward manner.
"I'm sorry for your loss chief. He was a brave man." Spitlout said his face looking grim. "And I'm sorry to disturb your moment of grief but, sir, the ships have been destroyed, how do we plan on returning to Berk?" he asked feeling guilt for bringing this up when the chief was obviously in no shape to be helping anybody.
"oh for Thor's sake could you give the man a few minutes, he just lost his son" Gobber said fighting the urge to bludgeon the man.
"No, he's right. As the chief I need to think of the needs of my people, and right now that means finding a way of this island and back home." Slowly stoick rose from his spot in the ashes and, with hiccup still clutched firmly in his arms, he turned to address his people. "We need to salvage what's left of the boats and construct a vessel big enough to bring a fare few of us back at a time. Astrid and the others can help fly a few people back with their dragons. We need to be off this island in the next few days."
When stoic spoke his voice was filled with cold steal but to the trained ear, like Gobber, he could here all the emotion just barely being held back by a small barrier. "For now set up camp."
With that said stoick turned back to where the night fury lay still covered in a thin layer of ash. Stoic regarded the creature and big yellow saucer eyes stared back almost as if considering whether or not to trust this man.
Stoick walked forward and bent down next to the dragon, placing a large chubby fingered hand on its black scaly head. Stoic looked into those intense eyes searching for an answers to a questions he wasn't even aware of.
The dragon stared back, intelligence and sorrow pooling together. If dragons could cry stoic was sure there would have been tears coming out of its large eyes.
"Thank you, thank you for being there for him….in a way I never could. Thank you for loving my son, thank you." Stoick almost started crying again as the dragon listen to his words.
Toothless pushed himself up onto his short legs with some difficulty as he struggled to maintain his balance through the pain coarsening through his body. Turning its large head the dragon sniffed at the body of his fallen rider and stoic could have sworn he heard a cry like moan escape its jaws.
Toothless rubbed his head against the cheek of the small Viking whining like an animal in pain. And in that moment stoick finally understood what his son had seen in this creature. It ability to comprehend the situation was amazing and its eyes were alight with such intelligence it was almost frightening, but it moved with grace and dignity.
Toothless truly was a noble creature. And the chief was all that once stricken with deep respect for the dragon that had been his son's greatest friend, and grief that his son would never ride his dragon again.
Stoick's eye's moved to the dragons back and tail. The saddle was badly damaged, with angry black scorch marks covering most of its once maple brown surface.
Stoick followed the wires connecting from the saddle, down the length of the dragon's body down to the tip of its tail with his eyes. It was then that he noticed the missing tail fin.
All that was left of the handmade leather tail fin was hot metal bars bent and twisted in various directions, almost like branches coming of the tip of the creature's tail.
As he looked over the dragon's body he noticed amongst his already dark scaled were patches of blood seeping out of even blacker burns and gashes. And that's when it hit him. This dragon almost died trying to save his son.
Suddenly all the guilt came back, crashing in like a tidal wave upon the shore.
He turned his head away and, still holding the still bleeding body of his son, walked slowly toward the entrance of a small cave. And there he placed his boy on the ground beside him as he sat in silent vigil.
~Chapter 1 end~
I've written a few stories but this is my first time actually posting any of my fanfic so please go easy on me. I really hope you like it so far. How to Train your draogn is one of my all time favorite movies and I'd been planning on writing a story for awhile. since finals just ended for me I'll be able to upload the next few chapters pretty quickly. I'd appreciate any reviews or constructive criticisms you can give me I really would like to know how you like it. So until next chapter, bye bye. :)